Eating Escapades

Friday marked the start of cold weather in Beijing, and it was rather dark and gloomy all day, so it wasn't surprising that most guardians had their kids stay indoors, whilst Rosabelle was the only representative downstairs in the morning (safe for another two kids who were also making their rounds). Too cold, they say, afraid the kids will catch a chill.

So we got her bundled up nice and warm, in a Zara baby top, complete with hat. Thank goodness we went out in the morning, as it was much too cold to go out in the evening - she would have been stuck home the whole day.

Luckily yesterday morning, the sun came out nice and bright, so we managed to squeeze in some play time with the other kids in the yard.
That's her in her Little Red Riding Hood gear, nonchalently chewing on some other kid's milk bottle cover, gasp...

As the nanny took two days off this weekend, we stuck to our plan of bringing Rosabelle out to enjoy one outside meal on each day - lunch time. On Saturday, we took her to Grandma's Kitchen at Jianwai Soho, and coincidentally bumped into another family in the yard, heh!

Rosabelle ate toast, broccoli, tomatos, roasted and mashed potatos, as well as chicken from our chicken burger. She ate rather well, and even finished off the meal by trying out my strawberry milkshake (I know, strawberry and cow's milk - quite dangerous items to offer kids eh...), and she of course loved the sweet taste. We let her eat a small tangerine after the meal as well.

On Sunday morning, heigh-ho! This is what we woke up to - snow-laden Beijing! Apparently, it was snowing through the night, and the snowfall peaked at around 11-nish, just before we were due to head out for lunch. The snowflakes were very big and pretty, and Wayne says it's really rare for Beijing to have such heavy snowfall, especially so early on in the year. (Tonight's temperature is going to dip to -5 degrees celsius...brrr!).

We saw some older kids in the yard having fun playing in the snow and building snowmen/snow balls, but figured Rosabelle might be too young for that (so we did not go out at all the whole day, other than for lunch). But we still made sure she wore her down jacket even when we went to the basement car park. Here she is with her classic 'pretty' grin.

When we reached the dim sum restaurant (陶朱公馆), it was an open-air carpark, but we couldn't be bothered to put on her jacket again, so I just hugged her tight under my own down jacket (she ended up with some snow flakes on her hair, hehe).

Surprisingly, she did not seem to take to the dim sum meal as much as she liked the American food lunch the day before. She ended up eating quite a bit of fish porridge, half a char siew pao, and trying only minimal amounts (i.e. spat them out after) of kai lan, turnip cake, chee cheong fun, and siew mai. Just as well... I find the porks used in dim sums are very fatty and oily...

On both days, we would still prepare her dinner for eating at home, giving her instant porridge with a dish of boiled soup (adding various types of vegetables to it).

One thing's for sure - Wayne and I are both glad the nanny's back at work tomorrow - phew! At least I can pay another trip to the dentist. Funny, as I usually have no problems with my teeth, but my lower left molars started feeling sensitive mid-week last week, but I paid scant attention to it. Only when it started hurting on Friday night did I then quickly go to the dentist when Rosabelle was taking her afternoon nap on Saturday - turns out there does not seem to be any holes nor fillings that have dropped out, as the dentist did an X-ray scan. Only thing she did was to apply some gel to soothe the light swelling and told me it could be due to me eating spicy or hot foods, making my teeth hurt, and that it should subside.

However, over the past 48 hours, it seems to have gotten worse, and I can't even chew on my left side, and the swollen gums have become even larger beneath the teeth. Yikes, I am oh so going for a second opinion tomorrow morning, hope all will be ok...